the methods and madness of one family of 12
Megan: lace, cowboy boots, and curls.
Kaitlyn: fishtail braid, peacock necklace and awesome leather belt. 
Lydia: fluer de lis necklace, black nail polish and belt and converse shoes.,
And to make up for laziness…
Two of the most handsome guys I know!
Sorry y’all! I’ll try to do better. In the meanwhile gets all the pics I haven’t been posting!
Gypsy Rachael.
Patriotic Lydia.
The sun rays in the top of this picture are gorgeous, don’t you think?
Posted by: Kittykait
Eek! I completely forgot to take pictures last week because we were at a birthday party for my adorable cousins in Austin. This week, I was in Fort Worth for a family reunion, but lucky for you Lydia and Megan had the presence of mind to do my job for me. Aren’t they sweet? Since I didn’t take a picture if my outfit (which wasn’t spectacular anyway) I’ll just rent and rave about my new (used) boots that I got from goodwill!
They’re real leather, pre-worn in to perfection, and have gorgeous fabric on the inside, which I love in clothes! It’s like someone added a little touch as a special favor to you, just so you can smile when you put them on. Oh, and they’re half a size too big so I can wear them with big poofy socks in the winter!
Lydia wore one of her favorite polka dot skirts with some new black Chucks she got from Platos Closet.
Megan seems to have tried on quite a few of my dresses, from the very full state of her bed and empty state of my closet, and settled on this one. That’s ok, it looks better on her.
Parker with his first pair of real Converse that we got him for his birthday, along with a vest. Isn’t he handsome?
Posted by: Kittykait
This week Natalie wore a polka dot shirt and a skirt with little flowers, I think this is one case where two patterns work rather well. Her bright blue Converse add a nice splash of color.
Megan borrowed a dress from Lydia (as usual).
Lydia is wearing a new dress she bought at Walmart last week.
I wore a kind of wacky outfit today. I put one of my favorite blue dresses under my very favorite super stripey skirt, with a black belt at the waist to pull it together.
What did you wear to church this week?
Posted by: Kittykait
I know I’ve promised weekly posts multiple times and failed every time (sorry!), but this time I think it will be easier to keep it up, because I just got a smartphone (yaaay!), so I can post on the hour drive to or from church. Basically, I won’t have time to procrastinate! My plan is to post pictures of Megan, Lydia and me (and whoever else is close by), probably without many (or any) words, because as much and as well as people write I’ve always loved looking at pictures they post. It’s so much more personal and easier to process, it gets the point across better, like a little peek into someone’s life.
Posted By: Kittykait
When people ask me about learning to sew I always say “Try it! Practice makes it easy, fast!”, and it always seemed silly to me when they returned with something like, “I couldn’t do it like you. You’re just naturally talented!”. But I always felt the same way about writing. Deanna and Megan could always just write well, with little effort. But I couldn’t and practice wasn’t going to change that. As it turns out, I just needed a pattern to help me along with my practice.
Several weeks ago Mom told Lydia and I that she signed us up for an online essay class, which didn’t excite me at all. It made me nervous. I’d never done something like it before and I didn’t know what to expect, especially when I found out there were in-class assignments! And a teacher! And worst of all, grades! I may have acted like a silly unsocialized homeschooler for a while. The upside to my nervous pessimism is that I’m usually pleasantly surprised!
The teacher is funny, entertaining and comprehensive. He uses a lot of quotes from famous literature to illustrate whatever aspect of good writing he’s talking about. He also uses some more lighthearted quotes. One week he pulled bits from both The Lord of the Rings and The Princess Bride movie, which won me and Lydia over for good.
The in-class assignments, which were my greatest fear going into this, are extremely helpful, because you get criticism on the spot. That way we know if we properly understand the concept that he’s going over, before the actual (graded) assignment is turned in.
The class is for five paragraph essays, which is a bit of a rigid format, but the principals carry over to most types of writing. After all, every bit of writing should have a bit of an introduction, and once you’ve written and intro you have to say something about the subject, then of course, you never want to leave a reader just hanging so you must wrap it up! Besides structure Mr. Vogel has plenty to say about keeping your writing from being choppy, making it interesting, engaging your reader from the beginning, and using different styles to aid you in whatever type of writing you are using to communicate.
The class is nearly over now, and I’ll be sorry to see it go. I like being forced to practice new things every week, which is a big deal. I used to be the kid that had emotional breakdowns over writing. Ridiculous. The skills I’ve gained from his class have given me a lot more confidence in my writing. Hopefully I’ll have the self-discipline to keep it up on my own, but for now I’m incredibly grateful for all that Mr. Vogel has taught me. I highly recommend it for parents looking to boost their emotionally incontinent writer’s confidence. Who knows? Maybe they’ll end up enjoying it.
P.S. If you ask *really* nicely I might post a few of my assignments.
Posted by: Kittykait
I made a Pinterest account last week and it’s been making my crafty side feel super energetic! Last night Deanna gave me a v-neck shirt that she didn’t want and I’ve never been terribly fond of v-necks so I decided to experiment with it. Here’s what I came up with:
This was super easy, cute and fast! It took me less than ten minutes the first time. The best part? The neckline is more modest because it doesn’t sag at all!
Enjoy!
Posted by: Kittykait
Last week I got my Learners Permit! I was a little nervous about the test but it was all multiple choice questions, easy!
As it turns out the part I should have been nervous about was the picture. I think they need to change the order of things and do the vision test *after* they take your picture to make sure your not permanently blind. If you watch everyone in the room jumps and blinks when the flash goes off. I thought I was struck by lighting for Pete’s sake!
Anyhoo since then my eyesight has recovered and I’ve driven Dad (most of the way) to work 3 times and on Sunday we had an extra car in town so I drove Mom all the way home from church all in our Kia, which is a manual. Manual is generally thought of as really hard but I had a good teacher (my dad) so I think it’s fun. I’m not perfect at it but I was feeling really proud of myself Sunday because I had to start and stop on a few hills (for the first time) and I didn’t even come close to killing anyone!
Right now we have 3 working vehicles, the great white whale, the Mustang and our little Kia. I haven’t driven the van yet which, for now, is fine with me. I drove the Mustang half way home one time and even though it’s automatic (and super cool) for now I prefer the Kia because the nose is shorter and the windows are bigger so I don’t have to be too nervous about what I can’t see.
I think the dumbest thing I’ve done while driving was right after a light turned green, I shifted into first, to start, then I gave the car some gas. But the car didn’t move so I gave it more gas… still nothing, I was getting kind of frantic then I realized I must be in third. Nope. I was pumping on the the brake not the gas. That made me feel really intelligent. I didn’t even mind when Natalie and Becca waived and pointed to the “Student Driver” sign from the back seat.
Mom and I were wondering together how many people know how to drive manual. Mom thought probably less know than don’t. So shouldn’t automatics be called standards?
Let’s see:
Loading ...Remember months ago when I said I would do a weekly poll? I did warn you that I would forget!
Posted by: KittyKait
While we were at the Homeschool conference in Plano a few weekends ago, I lost my iPod touch. Ouch. You have no idea how hard it hurt to say that.
I’m going to wait until September 9th to replace it when the newest generation comes out. That way the price on the old one will drop. Or if the new one is super awesome-er enough I’ll buy it. Though if I decide to buy the new one I’ll probably wait a few weeks after the release and buy a refurbished one from Amazon.
But of course I’ll need money to carry out this plan. So, you buy my stuff, I buy iPod and then we’re all happy.
All items are new from Vision Forum or from the Vision Forum clearance rack.
One really cool radio:
You can use the solar panel, a hand crank or AAA batteries in it to power this radio. It also has a USB port in the back to charge a phone or pretty much anything else in the world. And an auxiliary port, which lets you use the speakers on the radio to listen to an iPod.
New from Vision Forum. The box is dented at one corner. $35 with free shipping.
One very nice Dictionary:
Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
A dictionary with Christian perspective. What else is there to say?
There are a few little wrinkles on the bottom corner of the back cover but it’s hardly noticeable. It looks like the paper/vinyl was not carefully applied to the board. $35 with free shipping.
And Natalie wanted me to add that she is selling a Fidelia doll.
She is selling her for $45 with free shipping.
Posted by: Kittykait
Today I had one of my great ideas! No doubt you are wondering what my brilliant mind has thought up now!
I have decided to do a weekly poll here.
Everyone likes polls. I suppose that’s because everyone likes to talk about themselves and to see what others think. Polls are interesting because it’s a little glimpse into normality… Whatever that is.
I don’t think I post nearly as often as I should or as I mean too.
And thus, I think that my (current) brilliant idea is the perfect opportunity to fix that. Until of course I think of another brilliant idea and desert this one as quickly as I fell madly in love with it.
I’ll try to do some that are actually informative and educational, but of course I’ll have be sarcastic sometimes. It’s in my blood after all.
Loading ...Posted by: Kittykait
I’m all jazzed right now because I finally started an Etsy shop! In case you didn’t know, Etsy is a place like ebay for handmade, supplies for handmade things and vintage items.
We’ve found it’s a great place to find inexpensive jewelry making supplies like pendants, charms, chains etc. 
I set up my Etsy shop for some really cute, thanks to some loverly mariemadeline scraps, fabric rings. I’ve been meaning to for a long time but I procrastinate, just like my Mommy, isn’t that sweet?
I’m telling you first, partly so you can hop over and take a look and give me suggestions, like what questions you have that I didn’t already answer in the description. And so you can give me some of my first business!
And please let me know what color you like best!
Posted by: Kittykait
I came across this photographer’s blog recently and have really enjoyed looking at his pictures! I really like the effects he uses on eyes, which is where I got the idea for what I did:
Posted by: Kittykait
The Long Ladies are having a new giveaway every week until Christmas! Right now (ends Dec. 13th) they’re giving away a quilt! Actually this time there’s two that you can choose from! I love the one on the right. After the giveaway the one that wasn’t “giveawayed”
goes into there lovely store! Hop on over to their website and enter. Be sure to let them know we sent you! You can get up to 107 entries by Facebooking it, blogging, etc. Read their post for more details.
They also have a great Cyber Monday sale right now.
It’s always hard for me not to buy myself Christmas presents…
I have to say I don’t think title of this book does it justice. The reason I’m starting with that is because I know that in our house some of us have the bad habit of judging a book by its title. This book, rather than the impression the title gave me, is fast paced, exciting and very informative. I read it in only a day and a half, which is something I rarely do.
One of my favorite parts in the book is when 14 year old Thomas finds his friend being teased by a group of boys who are on a school field trip. He politely asks for the papers back and informs them that they are hindering important work, then the bullies turn to him. After a brief interchange where Thomas threatens to call the security guard, the ring leader swings at him. With a few quick motions Thomas has his arm twisted behind his back and Derrick is crying uncle. I like this part because he deals with bullies how they should be dealt with. He is cool and gentlemanly until it turns into a self defense issue, and even then he is polite. After the papers are returned he suggests some points of interest for their site-seeing tour and leaves.
Here is a brief summary of the book from Vision Forum:
When adversity strikes, boys must act like men. This story traces one boy’s journey as he stands beside his father to defend the life of a helpless young woman. Fourteen-year-old Thomas witnesses his father, John Richards, put his congressional race at risk to do the right thing. This high-octane adventure story digs deep, exploring important lessons related to law, civics, medical ethics, and discipleship.
Although it does deal with some difficult topics, I think that this book would be interesting and appropriate for young teens up to adults. My book-loving 11yo sister is reading and enjoying it along with several older members of the family.
I love that so many important lessons are incorporated all throughout the book. There is a lot of information about how our legislative and judicial system works. I learned a lot, but I didn’t fully absorb all of it so I’ll probably read the book again for that reason. There is also a lot of emphasis on father son relationships, the importance of manliness and standing for what’s right at any cost. As Christians books like these should be important to us, so that if ever a sticky situation comes our way we know without a second thought what do.
Posted by: Kaitlyn
You already know I love to sew right? Well lots of people are going to Boston in costume, and I’m hoping to be one of them. I’d like to make myself at least one costume.
I have this pattern but I think I really like some of the other ones I’ve seen. Here is the Vision Forum page with pattern suggestions. This dress pattern here really caught my eye, but is says you have to wear a stay (I think that’s the similar to or the same as a corset) with it and I really don’t want to do that!
I also like these but there are mixed opinions about them in our house. Some people love the pattern and some people don’t. What do you think?
Do you have any suggestions for a pattern? Any period between 1509 and 1809 will work.
If you want to go the Reformation 500 in Boston but haven’t registered yet, use our coupon code for 25% off registration for an individual or a whole family! But it expires June 2nd so hurry!
The secret code (which we’re telling everyone) : inashoe
Posted by: Kaitlyn
I’m trying to earn some money for a dress (those are hard to find modest and cute), but my 50% off coupon expires the 28th so I’ve got to earn money fast.
One of my best sources of money is you!
So I added some new books, doll dresses and DVDs to our For Sale page! Including, but not limited to:
Sounds exciting, right? So why not pop over there and take a quick look?
I can do that right? Sunday Stills on Monday?
We have a lot of cedar trees around here. Don’t they look so pretty after rain?
This is one of Mom’s new deck chairs that she bought with her Christmas money.
I probably took 50 pictures of Moms flowers. I just couldn’t resist. The water looks so pretty on them!
This Becca’s swing that she bought with her birthday money a couple of years ago. I think I like the colors in this one the best.
More cedar! I love the big raindrop right in the center of the picture.
Which picture is your favorite? Why? What’s your favorite thing to take pictures of?
Today Becca gave Bethy a piece of ice to play with and she loved it! I couldn’t help but take pictures. You think that’s a good thing but when I (or anyone) take pictures of her I go crazy! After I narrowed them down there were 75, but don’t worry I’m only posting 13 . Enjoy!
I love to sew! I’ve made dresses, skirts and purses. Sewing is one of the ways that I can bless my family. I love to sew because when I make something I can make exactly what I want. I can be creative with the cute rickrack and other fun embellishments.
- Kaitlyn
This post is part of this week’s Homeschool Kids Write project. Go see more!
Umm… Hi, my name is Kaitlyn, for those of you who are wondering I am not dead. I’m just a slacker.
Mom tagged me for the 6 things meme, and the 2 things meme. How long ago was that? July? wow I am a slacker , I guess I’ll just do them both in one post.
The six things meme
The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
6 Random things about me:
I’ll tag:
Now the 2 things meme:
1. Kittykait
2. Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way (I guess I’ll have to resign from this since I’m a slacker now)
1. My watch from Christmas
2. 3 headbands to shoot like rubber bands!
1. Perry boy who danced for us this morning.
2. Talking on google talk.
1. Chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Dark CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Shelob, the tarantula, what she’s cute!
2. Tommy our jack Russel terrier who went totally berserk after attacking the porcupine. He had more than 200 quills removed from his face.
1. I already ran out on the six things!
2. Blah blah blah.
1. Sleep
2. Eat
1. Church’s Chicken.
2. A peach.
1. Lydia who is begging me to go on a walk with her (just a minute!)
2. Natalie (I couldn’t remember who so I just told her “Hi”)
1. Help make Pizza.
2. Eat Pizza.
1. Ohio, to visit old friends.
2. Tennessee.
1. New Year’s Day (Natalie’s Birthday)
2. Thanksgiving.
1. Hot CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!
2. Vanilla Coke.
The Persecution Project fundraiser has been moved to a tab at the top (For Sale), and new items have been added. Prices are also reduced, so please take another look. The girls have made a few sales and received one extremely generous donation toward their fundraiser. You know who you are; thank you!
If you want to donate, you can either use your credit card on the PPF site, or you can use Paypal to donate to our girls’ fundraiser and they will send it all at once.
kaitlyn here i have been faking sleep for about 1-2 hours.
The midwife got here about 10 minutes ago.
it wont be long now….
Last night mom and I made a new page for graphic design. I love designing graphics. The new page has my portfolio. I have done a few free jobs and I have gotten a few tips. I will be working for tips and donations for a while. There are details on the page.
I can do any of the following:
What can I do for you?
Yep you read right. This…
…is our red-neck-pool. We have no pool, we live in south Texas, and we do have a BIG wheelbarrow, hence our wheelbarrow= our red-neck-pool.
Lately (thanks to the cake decorating video we got recently) Lydia and I have been doing a lot of cake decorating. Yesterday our Aunt asked us to make some cupcakes for dessert at a baby shower/family-get-together. Mom found this book at Wal-mart. It’s packed with all sorts of cute ideas for cupcakes! The picture is an idea we tried out. After looking through it I decided to go to The Wilton website. I looked and put together a list of things we really want (we would buy everything in the store if we could ) and it came to $50! Mom suggested that I post on the blog and ask you readers if any of you have things that you don’t use or need that you would sell for cheaper than buying new off the Wilton website? Here is my list of things we are especially looking for:
But we want pretty much anything that we can get. We are also looking for Wilton books. Does anybody have any recommendations? If you have anything at all that you think we might be interested in let us know!
The Boy has already started acting more mature just since you left He has been on patrol, hop skipping around the house since you walked out the door, and today he feed himself and the dogs lunch! I’ll have to leave you with that, after all we have no camera! We miss you and love you! (Don’t worry we can take care of ourselves) :’O Got to go!!!!
~Kaitlyn
Lydia
Uncle Ben (too much Coffee)
Guess what Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa got me for my birthday!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Do you remember what I said I was going to buy with the money from the dolls if they sold? THAT’S WHAT!!!! Can you tell I am really excited??!?!?! The pictures are just a few things I’ve done on it. I just traced the pictures in Adobe Photoshop 5.0.
I am moving this post to the top to remind everyone that they can bid on any of these 3 dolls until tomorrow night.
Natalie and I are each selling an Evangeline Doll and I am also selling a Abigail doll. I am going to buy a Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet for graphic work (Lord willing) with the money from the dolls if they sell.
The 18″ Evangelines and Abigail Dolls have hand rooted hair that can be brushed and styled like real hair. They have a cloth torsos, and their arms can move up and down. They can stand on her own, their eyes open and close when they lie down. Made in Germany!
Abigail is a precious little African-American doll with black hair, brown eyes, and a blue dress.
Evangelines have brown eyes, a pink checked dress and blond hair.
If you have American Girl Dolls, they are the same size and can share clothes.
The bidding opens at $40 each, including FREE shipping. The winner can pay by check, money order or Paypal, and we will ship the dolls as soon as we receive payment.
To place a bid, just leave the amount in the comments and which/whose doll you would like to buy. Bidding will close on Thursday, April 3rd 11:59 pm , CST. Please make sure we can contact you!
Thursday afternoon Mom told us that we had a cake decorating DVD and an e-book to review. Lydia and I were very excited (Deanna and Megan were at work with Dad). We watched it right away and loved it.
It started by telling about the icing tips, and what they are for then it gave a recipe for butter cream icing, and lots of tips on coloring and mixing the icing, writing on the cake, and how to make borders.
I never used to know that it was so easy to make things like roses, leaves, shell borders and she even tells how to make little rosebuds.
I have never decorated a cake before except once when I helped Mom ( I was 3yo ) so I was rather pleased with what I came out with (Click to see the full sized image) :
I was a little discouraged when a paper plate blew onto the cake in the middle of decorating it but it was my first try, and I haven’t even read the e-book yet. Here is a link to the blog where she post all of her cakes and how to make them.
Click here for more information about the DVD.
Here are a few riddles from a book called: One Thousand Poems For Children.
1. First they dress green,
Then they change brown;
and some will even wear
A red or golden gown!
2. From house to house he goes
A messenger small but slight;
And whether it rains or snows
He sleeps outside in the night
3. Riddle-me, riddle-me, riddle-me-ree,
Perhaps you can tell what this riddle may be!
As deep as a house, as round as a cup,
And all the King’s horses can’t draw it up.
1. Leaves!
2. A lane!
3. A well!
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Glory, Duty & the Gold Dome
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